Kelly was back at today's matinee, and as wonderful as ever. She and Raul did the park scene particularly well - they were like two close friends finishing each other's sentences. How appropriate.
This was, I am pleased to report, one of the best audiences I've been part of. They didn't stand up for Raul after Being Alive but they clapped a long time, and he got an immediate standing ovation for the curtain calls.
Saw John Doyle go in the stage door around 1:30. I would have spoken to him but was too far away.
The performance was uniformly "on" - everyone was giving what was for me a new reading of their lines - just very subtle differences in timing and emphasis. It might be that the audience was giving them a lot of feedback as to what worked. And there was a lot of laughter and clapping during "Side by Side/What Would We Do Without You" - that entire number always energizes me and it was good to finally hear the audience getting involved!
Raul never ceases to amaze me - this was, for me, the best of his performances yet (this is my fifth time!). "Someone is Waiting" was tender and plaintive, "Marry Me a Little" very lyrical, and "Being Alive" just ripped me up. He was so broken at the beginning of "Being Alive" - so completely destroyed, and you just see the strength and hope flowing back through the end of the song. The emotional arc seems to start lower and run higher - for the first time, I believed he would find a way to commit, and that he believed it, too.
I love this show - I can't imagine walking up 47th Street and seeing some other show name on the Barrymore marquee.
Updated On: 6/13/07 at 08:04 PM